Page 53 of Justice & Liberty

On the other hand, the last one seemed simple, and it definitely had not been. Or at least, the results hadn’t been what I’d expected, even if the spell casting had been simple.

This one at least had a little bit of fill in the blank where I had to explain what I needed the object for, so that was something. It was also in English, like the ones for the tea, so thank goodness for that.

Dez and I talked it through, and decided that sinceproving Sabrina innocent was the main goal, but we also didn’t want to end up with a different innocent incarcerated, I would say in the spell that the object was needed to find Ephraim Collins’s murderer. It seemed loophole-free, but I supposed there was only one way to find out.

The spell went similarly to the previous one, except that the ingredients didn’t disappear in a spray of steam or smoke, but a blinding flash of light.

Dez and I stared into the empty bowl, and...well, no clue to the murder had appeared out of nowhere. I frowned, but he held up a hand. “The spell saidfindthat which is required. Not magically summon it. So maybe the spell is just going to make sure you find it when you run across it naturally. Like Journey used to say when I got annoyed, you just have to be patient. It almost always worked. Almost.”

I frowned, but nodded. Maybe I should ask Abigail if I could wander through their house the next day, to see if I stumbled over a clue-by-four.

Too late to be wandering over there and bothering her tonight, though, so instead I turned on the TV and queued up one of my favorite TV shows from the last decade, smiling over at Dez. “You’re gonna like this.”

27

“You shouldn’t have stayedup till two in the morning watching television with your friends,” Hex nagged me as we headed out toward the car, to go to the Collins house. It was Sunday, so technically I didn’t have to go to the shop at all—Mom’s hours had been Monday through Friday only, and frankly, after having run the shop for most of the week, I knew why.

It was exhausting, even more than my previous retail experience. Maybe it would get better when I had Ryan’s help in the afternoons, but at least the first week had left me wrung out.

Maybe it was the fact that I’d had to remake magic sleep tea four times. Maybe that much magic tired me out.

“Dez is not ‘my friends,’ he’s one friend. And he’s thirty years behind on TV, Hex. I’m doing a service here.”

She wasn’t wrong, though. I wasn’t going to tell her I was a little grateful Dez had disappeared at two a.m., not because I’d been happy to pause our marathon, but because in retrospect, I had needed the sleep.

I opened the passenger door for the cats, then went and climbed in the driver’s side. I scowled and looked away from the blinding rearview mirror. Freaking sun, always up so early in the morning.

“Ugh,” I whimpered. “Why is the sun?”

Hex just sighed, but Bee lifted herself onto the center console. “Really? Were you drinking last night when I wasn’t looking? You’re acting hungover, but I didn’t see you drink. The sun isn’t that bright.”

She seemed genuinely concerned, so I looked down at her, and the light coming at me from behind was so bright I had to flinch.

Wait.

Behind.

Behind me was...south. The sun came up in the east, unless the laws of nature had changed overnight, so the sun couldn’t be coming into the car from that direction. I turned again toward the backseat, half expecting someone to be sitting there with one of those painful blue-white halogen flashlights to shine in my eyes.

Once I’d blinked my way through it, I determined that no, there was no one there, and more, no source of light. Except for a manila envelope sitting on the back seat that was shining like it was auditioning for the role of the new sun.

“Stop that,” I muttered to it, and instantly, the light was gone.

What the hell?

Find That Which is Required.

The spell had ended with a blinding flash of light, and then blinding light had enveloped this thing, only to stop when I told it to.

I opened the clasp and pulled the papers out, and that was when I remembered where I’d put the papers from Mom’s lawyer.

It was a copy of Mom’s will, then some other papers clipped together with one of those black clippy things.

But what the heck could that have to do with Ephraim Collins’s death?

I decided I wasn’t going to figure it out while sitting there in the car, so I looked at the cats. “Change of plans, guys. I’m gonna go to the coffee shop to check in and read this. Maybe...maybe Mr. Hayes put the wrong papers in here, and there’s something about who Ephraim was planning to sue instead? Either way, I’m not going to go to the Collins house and ask Abigail if she’ll let me and my cats in so we can sit there and read papers. It was weird enough I was going to bring you there at all. So do you want to go to the shop, which isn’t open today, or back in the house?”

“Home,” Bee said instantly. “But can you open the back window before you go? I want to go on the porch and watch the chickens.”

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